12 September 2015

As far as buzzwords go "automation" has to be near the top of the list of most maligned, abused, exploited and misrepresented phrases in IT and particularly software testing. Our work with clients has demonstrated the unending power of automated software testing, but such interactions have also provided us insight into why testing automation efforts don't always succeed.

Here are the top 3 reasons your team or organisation may not reaping the full rewards of your software testing automation efforts:

1. Unnecessary & unwieldy complexity

If I could get $1 for every time I've heard, "our product is very complex and that's why our test cases are too"... Frankly, if you fall into this boat then you've got it all wrong.

Complex products, by their very nature, require simplified and well delineated automated test scripts so that bottlenecks, pain points & bugs can be easily identified.

A tester with an adequate understanding of your product and automated testing should be able to run with your automated test scripts within a matter of minutes and hours. Any longer and either your scripts are unnecessarily complex or...

2. Your team members need to upgrade their skills

It's a fact: not every tester has the requisite skills to help your automation drive. So you either hire new guys, upskill the existing crew or bring in some heavy hitters who automate risk-based software testing as their bread and butter.

Many applications for test automation roles that we get tell us they know how to automate with Selenium. When we poke them for more detail we find out that they know how to use the record and play function in the Selenium IDE.

Unfortunately, the use of record and play does not translate into an effective automated regression testing program. It is for this reason that we combine "parameterised" automated test scripts with decision tree-based data sets. This is where the magic starts and an effective automated testing program is born.

3. Your technology is a hindrance rather than a help

Even the most popular and expensive software testing tools have their limitations when it comes to testing automation. Does your team have to rely on backdoor workarounds or expensive configurations to get your testing software to adapt to your needs? Is your team constantly fighting your testing technology rather than gallantly pushing it to its extremes?

If so, we get you. It's for this reason that we developed the Qsome Technology Platform with automated software test management and execution product with proprietary algorithms. Our customers will readily attest to the benefits of using our "built-for-digital" software testing tools.